Kigali, Rwanda- President Paul Kagame and King Mohammed VI signed Wednesday 19 agreements in a bid to strengthen bilateral ties and create opportunities for citizens of the two nations.
The agreements were signed on the second day of the three-day state visit by the King of Morocco, Mohammed VI, to Rwanda.
The areas of cooperation agreed on, include; foreign relations, security, finance, investments and private sector development.
Morocco’s King Mohammed VI arrived in the Rwandan capital Kigali on Tuesday night, marking the first tour of the monarch to East African states since his 1999 coronation.
The visit to Rwanda comes within the strategy designed by King Mohammed VI in recent years, which aims at diversifying its partnerships and strengthening its ties with the most important players in the African continent.
The King of Morocco was accompanied by a delegation of high ranking Royal officials and members of the Morocco private sector who are interested in exploring investment opportunities and partnerships available in Rwanda.
Officials from both sides also signed agreement related to launch the “Africa Mutual Growth” investment fund, Reciprocal Promotion and Protection of investments and Partnership for the development and the promotion of Economic Zones in Rwanda.
They further penned partnerships on the establishment of the African Institute of Technology (AIT), bilateral council between PSF and the Confederation of Moroccan Enterprises (CGEM), among others.
As part of a royal tour that will also lead to Tanzania and Ethiopia, the Moroccan King is expected to enhance economic and political ties with eastern African countries in order to gain their support to Morocco’s stance with regards to the Western Sahara dispute.
The Moroccan King’s visit comes three months after Morocco announced its intention to rejoin the African Union.
Notably, King Hassan II, King Mohammed’s father, withdrew from the AU — at the time called the Organization of African Unity (OAU) — in 1984 after it accepted the self-proclaimed Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) in the West Saharan region as a formal member.